Liberals insist junk food ad bill won’t hurt sports sponsorships

The federal Tories are warning that a bill banning unhealthy food ads aimed at children could create unintended consequences for sports team sponsorships and events if it isn’t amended.

But the Liberals insist the way the bill is worded is fine as it is and only affects marketing targeting kids under the age of 13, despite testimony warning it could make it harder for teams to get sponsorships.

Conservative health critic Marilyn Gladu said she’s “very concerned” about unintended consequences after hearing how the bill could affect hundreds of thousand of kids involved with amateur sports teams in Canada.

She said it needs to be clarified that what’s been proposed wouldn’t apply to food companies sponsoring teams and events, and “not leave it up to the whim of the regulators.”

He said the regulations – which are being developed by Health Canada – will address events and sponsorships, as well as other definitions of key wording in the bill, including the kind of foods that are considered “unhealthy.”

Eyolfson said doing it that way would give the government more flexibility than writing it in the bill itself.

“If you found the regulation was too stringent and caused problems, or found it wasn’t stringent enough and there were loopholes, then you’d have to go through the legislative process, which we all know takes lots of time,” he said.

Earlier this week, Lindsay Hugenholtz Sherk from the Sport Matters Group warned the House of Commons health committee that some national sports organizations are already feeling the effects of the bill and could stand to lose millions of dollars of investments in programming.

“We have heard from more than a few national sport organizations which have already been informed by existing sponsors that they do not intend to renew their investments as a result of Bill S-228,” she said.

Eyolfson said those concerns seem to have come out of nowhere and again insisted the bill won’t affect sports sponsorships.

“I don’t know what the issue is – the whole purpose of this law is [to deal with] advertising to children.”

Bill S-228, which started in the Senate, would ban advertising unhealthy food “directed primarily at children” under the age of 13.

The Commons health committee is nearly done amending the proposed legislation after a short two weeks of study, and should quickly finish with it on Monday next week before sending it back to the Commons.

The health committee lowered the age in the bill on Wednesday to marketing targeting Canadians under the age of 13, down from under the age of 17. The NDP opposed that move, saying a higher age threshold would be more effective and reduce loopholes.

Eyolfson said that change was made to avoid a challenge under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms after the government’s legal counsel advised them it could be a problem. He pointed to Quebec’s law banning marketing aimed at kids under 13, which withstood a challenge that made it to the Supreme Court in 1989. In the case of Irwin Toy Ltd. v. Quebec, Canada’s highest court upheld the Quebec law in the face of a challenge it was an unreasonable limit on freedom of expression under s.2(b) of the Charter.

Earlier this week, representatives from Canada’s advertising industry warned they’re considering taking legal action if the bill has the unintended effect of also preventing food marketing aimed at adults.

Ronald Lund, president and CEO of the Association of Canadian Advertisers, told MPs that “if our businesses are significantly harmed in an unreasonable way, such as banning food [marketing] directed at adults, then that’s a route that we would take.”

The Senate public bill, originally sponsored by Conservative Sen. Nancy Greene Raine, is expected to pass with government support.

It would fulfil one of the health minister’s mandate commitments by “introducing new restrictions on the commercial marketing of unhealthy food and beverages to children,” which falls among a number of measures aimed at tackling obesity rates.

A number of public health groups and officials have applauded the bill.

Dr. Tom Warshawski, chair of the Stop Marketing to Kids Coalition, told the committee Monday that according to estimates from the Global Burden of Disease, diet-related diseases now kill more Canadians than smoking tobacco does.

A brief inter-party spat at the end of Wednesday’s committee meeting related to a series of votes in the House of Commons delayed the committee from finishing on the bill until Monday.